ChemSpec’s principal, Innovo Chemicals Ltd. (UK), is the only fully integrated European supplier of fine CaO grades for rubber compounding. The Company quarries, burns, mills, and classifies product all at the same physical location. Composite samples from daily production are tested against specifications before being transferred to the Innovox plant for blending/packing.

Its product line (Innovox 95, Innovox OH, Innovox OHG, and Innovox FG) has a mean particle size of 2 to 3 microns. The competitions’ products often have a mean particle size of approximately 40 microns. This is partly because converters require a larger particle size with lower surface area to be able to produce granules, pastes, and oil treated 80% / 90% active products; and partly because the CaO they buy is only available in the larger particle size, as there are no manufacturers, other than Innovox, who produce and classify such a fine commercial grade CaO.

ChemSpec has been extremely successful in replacing 80 & 90% oil treated products with Innovox CaO. The smaller particle size and significantly greater surface of the Innovox products allows them to be used at considerably lower dose rates while achieving the same desiccant effect—this can sometimes decrease the load rate by 50%.

Additionally, lower dose rates of a 2-3 micron particles improves the surface of extrudates and molded components. Consequently, failure points in thin membrane molding applications as a results of agglomeration caused by larger 40 micron particles of CaO can be eliminated by using the Innovox brand.

CaO has a high PH value of 13. One might anticipate that the addition of CaO at higher loadings might cause an acceleration of cure because of the extreme alkalinity of lime. In fact, high loadings of CaO tend to act as a filler, which erodes or “robs” the cure in rubber compounds. Reducing the loading of CaO will improve overall cure performance and physical properties.

Further, CaO begins to react with atmospheric moisture from the minute it is manufactured. As such, ChemSpec’s and Innovo’s job is to get the product to the customer with as little deterioration as possible. Consider the fact that producers of CaO 80% pastes and 90% oil treated products have to purchase their raw lime. This lime is stored in silos at the manufacturer, transported via bulk tanker, then stored in silos or warehouses in bags at the producer, before finally being used to produce a paste, granule or an oil treated product. All these operations mean that the product has significantly more chance of reacting with atmospheric moisture before it has even been made into a paste, granules or an oil treated product. The Innovox material is manufactured and packaged at one site location (quarried, burned, milled, classified and oil treated), whereby the product is exposed to a minimal amount atmospheric moisture.

Innovo successfully exports products to many regions around the world including North America, the Far East, and the Middle East, and has an excellent track record of product stability.